FAIRBORN, Ohio – In a thrilling baseball game, the Milwaukee baseball team came out on top defeating top-seeded Wright State, 10-9, Friday evening from Nischwitz Stadium. With the win, the Panthers move on to the 2019 Horizon League Baseball Championship.
 
The Panthers (35-20-1) never trailed throughout the contest and responded each inning the Raiders (42-17) scored. With a combination of clutch hitting and pitching, Milwaukee avoided elimination for the third time in the tournament, knocking off a Wright State team that entered the day with a 21-3 record at home this season.
 
"Goodman (Elijah) gave us a really good start against a potent lineup, and it's not easy to get through those guys, so we have to give him a lot of credit," said Panther head coach Scott Doffek. "We were able to keep them somewhat in check, but our guys came up with some big hits, which was impressive."
 
In the first inning, the Panthers did all of the damage after two outs.  Joe Vyskocil and Tyler Bordner came up clutch with back-to-back singles for an early two-run advantage to get the MKE offense started.
 
In return, Wright State put together a four-hit, two-run bottom half, but Milwaukee answered right back the next inning. Sophomore Jack Thelen set the table with a single to left before Zach Nogalski recorded his fifth home run of the season and retake the lead. Mike Ferri added a run with a single to left field scoring Devin Rybacki to make it 5-3 before the inning ended.
 
After the first inning, Elijah Goodman settled in on the mound nicely striking out the side in the bottom of the third and came up with a big strikeout in the bottom of the fourth. Wright State had threatened with a runner on third after a Panther error, but Goodman recorded his fifth strikeout to end the threat.
 
Milwaukee added to its lead in the sixth when Nogalski hit an identical shot over the right field fence for his second of the day, moving the score to 6-3. With his home run in the sixth, Nogalski became the first Panther to ever hit two home runs in a Horizon League Tournament game.
 
"To see him (Nogalski) go down the right field line both times really shows the talent and tools he has," said Doffek. He has a super-bright future ahead of him and we sure needed him today. He came up huge for us."
 
The Raiders rallied in the bottom of the sixth scoring three runs on three hits to even up the score at six, but once again the Panthers stormed right back with three runs of their own. With runners at the corners and one out, Bordner did what he does best and singled to center scoring Schwecke from third – his 10^th RBI in the past three days. Following a Colin Kreiter single, Thelen drew a bases loaded walk to put MKE up 8-6. Finally, Nogalski added to the lead before the inning ended with a sacrifice fly for a three-run advantage.
 
The back-and-forth affair continued from the two high-powered offenses when Wright State scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to come within one run.
 
Following WSU's two runs in the seventh, Milwaukee pushed the lead back to two runs when Schwecke hit a sacrifice fly scoring Rybacki in the top of the eighth. 
 
With the score 10-8 in favor of Milwaukee, the final inning had both teams hyped with Wright State looking for a comeback while the Panthers looked to close it out with Jake Sommers and move on to the championship. Schwecke's insurance run proved important when MKE saw their two-run lead cut in half when Chase Slone doubled to left center and score Zach Weatherford from second.
 
After the double, however, Sommers retired the next two Raiders in order to defeat the regular-season conference champions by a final score of 10-9, closing it out when he fielded a comebacker and threw to first for the last out.
 
Sommers pitched the final 3.1 innings of the game, earning the victory, while allowing three runs on four hits. He struck out four.
 
Milwaukee collected 15 hits and had multi-hit performances from Devin Rybacki, Joe Vyskocil, Tyler Bordner and Zach Nogalski. Vyskocil led the charge with a 4-for-5, RBI and two runs scored stat line for the Black & Gold.
 
With the win, the Panthers move on to Championship Saturday in hopes of a League Championship and automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. MKE will have to defeat No. 2 seed UIC  twice to do so. Saturday's game one is set to begin at 11 a.m. (CT) from Nischwitz Stadium at Wright State University.